Mel Anastasiou

In this issue Follow cover artist Akem's Selfie into myth and mystery with 'The Tales of Fanon and Gavroche' by feature author Ren e Sarojini Saklikar. Make connections over seemingly impossible gulfs with 'Downwelling' by D Marmara and 'M4R1NR' by Mike Carson, and discover what the nighttime holds in Mel Anastasiou's 'Moonlight Over Paradise Gardens' and Part 4 of 'Their Grandfather's Chair' by JM Landels. Fly away with a gorgeous mischief of three very different Magpies by Pattie Palmer-Baker, Angela Rebrec, and Elizabeth Cockle, and then come home to nest with Sierra Louie's elfin adventurer in 'If I Could Hide Away Anywhere'. Have a stiff drink with Melissa Ren at 'The Midnight Diyu', or pick a potion with Lena Ng in 'The Curse of the Chattering Skull', while you mingle uncomfortably with strangers in Mitchell Toews's 'The Light Pool' and William Kitcher's 'I Can't Tell You That'.

Stella remembered Mad Cassandra Browning's words: There is danger, Stella Ryman. She shoved a hand deep into her pocket and wrapped her fingers around the keys to every door in Fairmount Manor Care Home. What had Thelma asked for? A real crime. This morning, Stella could smell crime, as clearly as the aromas of breakfast that wafted along the twisting Fairmount Manor corridors. Octogenarian sleuth Stella Ryman returns to investigate a perplexing care home mystery that precipitates the disappearance of her closest friend, the fragile and fierce Thelma Hu. The Greek Chorus spells out Thelma's doom: "Those who leave Fairmount seldom return." Stella's only hope to find Thelma and bring her home, is to escape Fairmount Manor and head out alone, armed with her wiles and the resilience born of long experience - through the big city that she never thought she'd see again.

Ceren of the Surf, one of cover artist Bronwyn Schuster's Knights of the Drowned Table, guards the watery portal to our autumn offerings. But more than water flows past the dead in feature author Kate Heartfield's chilling tale of corporate cover-ups, 'The Investigation Is Sealed'. Ravens, monsters, and zombies steal the show - and a few souls - in 'A Fair Exchange' by Tom Jolly, 'Liar's Leap' by Jonathan Sean Lyster, and 'Bad Backup' by Mikayla Fawcett and Gabriel Craven. Meanwhile, artistic adventures in celluloid, paint, and spider's silk await in 'The Painting' by Alan Sincic, 'The Projectionist' by Lisa Alo Seaman, and 'A Weaver's Web' by Barry Charman. The smell of goats and the secrets of ghosts haunt the pages of 'The Shepherdess: Narbonne' by JM Landels and 'Take My Hand: Enter Night' by Mel Anastasiou. And poetry from our Magpie Award Winners Angela Rebrec, Cicely Grace, and Veronika Gorlova reminds us that even the darkest of nights ends in sunrise.

In this issue ... The glowing yellow moon by cover artist Joyce Harumi Kamikura shines on forests, fields, and gardens in fiction by Matthew Hughes, JM Landels, and KT Wagner, while birds, ghosts, time travellers, cyborgs, and footnotes lure us away with stories by Elizabeth Nash, Mel Anastasiou, Finnian Burnett, and Mark Budman. Plus, find notable stories and winning entries from the Jack Whyte Storyteller Award and the Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest

In her search for the Answer to Everything, our intrepid Issue 42 cover heroine, Raygunne, finds dragons in the Rocky Mountains, ghosts in the 1990s, ninjas in suburbia, spies in Cathar castles, and zombie-killers for hire from Kelly Robson, Mel Anastasiou, Preston Lang, JM Landels, and Mikayla Fawcett and Gabriel Craven. Plus more moving stories and poetry from Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho, Nat Kishchuk, and the winners of the Kingfisher Poetry Prize, the Jack Whyte Storyteller Award, and the Raven Short Fiction Contest

In This IssueJoin us as we raise a glass to the New Year and a new decade with Cheers by cover artist Melissa Mary Duncan. Ghosts rise from the depths of different pasts to haunt the pages of 'When Captain Picard Was My Dad' by feature author Finnian Burnett and 'The Haunted Ghost' by JJ Lee. Family both anchors and unmoors the varied casts of 'Moon Eater' by EC Dorgan, 'Field's Nocturne No. 10 in E Major' by Matt Lumbard, and 'The Golden Bull' by JM Landels. Time and space rattle and quake in 'Nobody Knows It but Me' by Franco Amati and 'Separate Worlds' by Chip Houser. And the shattering continues with new poetry from Aaron Poochigian, DS Maolalai, Purbasha Roy. But journeys finally find peace in the destination with 'Get Home Safe' by Sierra Louie and 'Stella Ryman and the Labyrinthian Puzzle' by Mel Anastasiou.

Enchantment begins with Dreaming Underwater by Claire Lawrence. Friendship carries us forward in 'The Drink We Spill Out on the Ground' by feature author Claire Humphrey, 'Summer Soup' by Kim Harbridge, and 'Stella Ryman and the Curse of Youth' by Mel Anastasiou. Meanwhile, 'Marty' by Kevin Sandefur, 'When A Man Knows Much More Than We Ever Did' by Kelli Allen, and 'Mayflies' by Liza Potvin remind us that family life offers its own kind of adventures. Jennifer Lott, with 'Thirty Minutes to Live', and Beatrice Morgan, with 'Six-Minute Quiz', show us how to make wise use of our time. Matthew Nielsen's 'Then and Now: An ASD Comic' and Soramimi Hanarejima's 'Vulnerability, Now and Then' offer a spectrum of possibility. With 'The Golden Calf', JM Landels shows us another side of friendship and duty. Poetry by Elina Taillon, Haro Lee, and DS Martin takes us to the moon and madness. Then 'Reap What You Sow' by Alex Reece-Abbott and 'Tourist Trap at the End of the World' by KT Wagner land us back on solid ground.

Feature author Ren e Sarojini Saklikar treats us to a Bramah and the Beggar Boy side tale in prose and poetry. We welcome back Cadence Mandybura, and enjoy slipstream and superheroes from Patrick Barb and Tom Jolly. Mel Anastasiou offers more Pretty Lies and JM Landels shows us the other side of the mirror in 'Zara's Song'. Plus the winners of the Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize

Under the wise gaze of 'The Butterfly Witch' by Melissa Mary Duncan, this issue promises at least two sides to every story. Siblings work through past hurts and begin new journeys in 'Old Gifts' by feature author James Sallis and 'Can-on-a-String' by Alex Kitt. Meanwhile, zombies do double duty in 'Ambience' by Jason P Burnham and 'Caught Dead' by Shawn L Bird. We navigate new lands with Pete Barnstrom in 'Oeufs Dangereux' and Cheryl Skory Suma in 'Adrift off the Shore of Alzheimer Island'. And Anna Zumbro in 'The Dump 'Em Dog' and Mikael Lopez and Enrico Orlandi in 'Forgive My Delay' remind us that, no matter the world in which we live, breaking up is hard to do. Next, triple your literary delight with historical fiction: 'The Shepherdess: Grandm re Paris' by JM Landels, 'Pretty Lies: I Can See for Miles' by Mel Anastasiou, and 'Once Upon a Time in Camelot' by GD Litke. Three's the charm for poetry too, with our Magpie Award winners Cara Waterfall's 'griefbody' and 'Harvest' and Kevin Spenst's 'BigGermanDialectWordClankinglyInsertedHere '.

Vancouver schoolmarm Frankie Ray runs away to Silver Screen Hollywood to test her conviction that an actress who lacks glamour but has talent and an enterprising attitude can make it in the movies. But when a dissolute, womanizing matinee idol turns up dead on her sofa, Frankie's career hopes shatter. She'll need all her acting chops to sleuth out the murderer and clear her name.

In This Issue: It's summertime, and the water's fine ... or is it? 'Collector' by cover artist Akem beckons us beneath the surface and between the pages. But in 'A Collection of Secrets' by feature author Rhea Rose and 'The Island' by M Denise Beaton, we discover that some treasures are better left hidden. Back on shore, summer brings around friends both new and old in 'Audrey and the Crow' by Cadence Mandybura, 'The Two Oh Four Six' by Dustin Moon, 'Floaters' by Kevin Sandefur, and 'Whispers in Between My Shoulder Blades' by Christine Breede. Shapeshifers in 'Shadow Work' by Soramimi Hanarejima and 'Gwannyn's Song' by JM Landels show us the secret to sacrifice. And families come together, reshaped, in Kaile Shilling's SiWC honourable mention, 'Death and Laughter'. Allison Bannister in 'The Play's the Thing' and Mel Anastasiou in 'Pretty Lies: Hold On' draw inspiration from the classics. And poetry from Dawn Macdonald and Yuan Changming reminds us that love is classic too.

In this issue, a giant feline swats us into the void with 'Space Cat' by Bronwyn Schuster. And feature author Kate Heartfield leads us on a daring escape through the universe in 'And in the Arcade, Ego'. Hitch a ride into the heat - and heart - of the desert with Kevin Sandefur's 'Out in the Sticks'. And it all goes up in flames in 'Paper, Candles, Hearts & Other Combustible Materials' by Anne Baldo. Natalie Harris-Spencer, in 'The Art of Ironing', and Cara Waterfall, in 'Vessel', illustrate ways of navigating relationships and bodily autonomy. And friendship transcends time and place in 'Fate of Chickens' by Krista Jane May. We delve into familial grief and sacrifice in 'Sap and Seed', by H Pueyo and Dante Luiz, and the opening chapters of 'Allaigna's Song: Chorale' by JM Landels, while 'Pale Pony Express' by Lulu Keating and 'The Echo of Light Footsteps on Parchment' by Kimberley Aslett explore memory and loss through storytelling. Strange science brings us 'The Magic Shuffling Machine' by Derek Salinas Lazarski but can't explain the tiny home intruder in 'The Switch Fairy' by Monica Wang or the supernatural occurrences in 'Pretty Lies: Eyes Full of Moon' by Mel Anastasiou.

Tais Teng offers this issue's opening notes with The Pianist Who Serenaded the Mermaids with Chopin's Nocturne in E Minor. The wonders continue with short fiction from Dan MacIsaac, Zandra Renwick, Kelsey Hutton, Sarina Bosco, David Perlmutter, Melissa Nelson, Leslie Wibberley, and Robin Malcolm. There's poetry from the Magpie winners and a graphic short finale from Matthew Nielsen. JM Landels brings us Toinette's latest adventures, and Mel Anastasiou introduces us to an all-new mystery, Pretty Lies.

Beneath the coastal landscape of Tatjana Mirkov-Popovicki's Helby Island Afternoon, families navigate magic, migration, murder, and mayhem in short fiction from Brenda Carre, Elsa M Carruthers, Hajera Khaja, Graham Robert Scott, Janet Smith, and Colleen Anderson. Matthew Nielsen searches for belonging and the Bumblebee winner alights. Allaigna faces new adventures in Oburakor by JM Landels. And Frankie Ray returns for a final bow in the last installment of The Extra by Mel Anastasiou.